LEADING A MULTICULTURAL WORKFORCE

INTRODUCTION

Since 1990, more than two million newcomers from all over the globe have settled in Canada. It is estimated that the visible minority population in Canada is 17 percent of the population with almost seventy percent of new immigrants coming from Asia and the Third World.

In the predominantly homogeneous workplace of the recent past, most everybody knew the unwritten rules concerning what was expected, and how things were done (workstyle). But now the rules are changing as employees from other cultures are bringing with them different workplace perspectives, preferences and expectations.

The benefits will be considerable, but so will be the challenges. Managers will have the responsibility of working in new ways with employees; the challenge of creating effective teams of employees who are unlike each other in race, culture, language, and customs; and, the need to create an inclusive environment in which all employees understand, value and respect each others' differences.

AUDIENCE

This course is designed for managers and human resources advisors. It will enable them to recruit, develop and retain a multicultural workforce as well as to create an affirmative and inclusive working environment in which ALL employees can excel.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Explain the rationale for, benefits, challenges and impact of multiculturalism in the workplace
• Develop strategies to integrate different cultural workstyles
• Improve their cross-cultural communication skills
• Conduct a bias-free hiring process including: staffing and recruitment; selection and assessment; and, interviewing
• Remove employment barriers
• Create an inclusive and affirmative working environment

COURSE CONTENT

Leading Multiculturalism

• The changing demographics in Canada
• Rationale for multicultural training
• Benefits and challenges of multiculturalism in the workplace
• Impact of multiculturalism on the manager
• Skills and knowledge managers will require to lead a multicultural workforce

Cultural Identities, Values and Expectations

• Mainstream Canadian values and their impact
• Assumptions and expectations in the Canadian workplace
• Workplace expectations and behaviours of persons from other cultures
• Strategies to successfully include different cultural workstyles

Beliefs and Behaviours

• Ethnocentrism: how we measure and evaluate others
• Stereotyping: what it is and how it happens
• Prejudice: what it is and why it happens
• Discrimination: what it is and who does it

Cross-cultural Communication

• Your communication 'style'
• Cultural differences in communication styles
• The causes of cross-cultural communication breakdown
• How to 'read' someone from another culture
• Providing feedback in a culturally sensitive manner
• Cross-cultural communication do's and taboos

Bias-free Hiring

• Difference between "unearned advantages" and "unearned disadvantages"
• Define an "employment barrier"
• How to conduct a bias-free hiring process including: staffing and recruitment; selection and assessment; and, interviewing

Removing Employment Barriers

• Employment barriers to professional and career development
• How to remove these barriers
• How to create an inclusive and affirmative working environment

DURATION

Two days

COURSES AVAILABLE

Diversity at Work

Bias-free Staffing

Harassment Training

Employment Equity

Leading a Multicultural Workforce

Leading a Diverse Workforce

Cross-cultural Awareness

Cross-cultural Communication

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